Eagles offering a championship-caliber quarterback in Kolb

NEW ORLEANS - They came, they sat next to a perspiring, vaguely uncomfortable Andy Reid, they asked about Kevin Kolb.

There might be something the Eagles' mediaphobic leader likes less than the annual coaches' breakfast at the NFL meetings; if there is, it probably involves watercress and kelp. But Reid sat for more than an hour in the vast ballroom at the Roosevelt Hotel yesterday morning, answering some fairly repetitive questions as reporters drifted from table to table. If Reid didn't give any clues as to where his on-the-market quarterback might end up, he did manage to polish his sales pitch.

Kolb, 26, is a championship-caliber quarterback, Reid said. Reid recalled the 2001 NFL Scouting Combine, when his former mentor, Mike Holmgren, asked Reid's view on whether Holmgren should trade for Green Bay's Matt Hasselbeck, as Holmgren looked for a franchise QB for the Seattle Seahawks. Holmgren had been the Packers' head coach and Reid the QB coach in 1998, when Green Bay drafted Hasselbeck in the sixth round.

"I said, 'Matt Hasselbeck will come in and help you win a championship,' " Reid recalled. "That's how I feel about Kevin Kolb."

Reid said he told Holmgren then: "Whatever you have to pay for him, pay for him, go get him, and he'll help you win a championship." Reid added: "That's how I feel about this guy. That's why I've got him. I didn't bring him in to be a backup, I brought him in to be a starter, and crazy things happened, with this Michael Vick thing, that nobody thought would happen . . . That kid is a championship-caliber quarterback."

Of course, Hasselbeck did not win any championships for Holmgren in Seattle, but they got to Super Bowl XL, and Hasselbeck has played in three Pro Bowls.

Do other coaches ask for a similar assessment of Kolb at events like this, even though Reid is far from a disinterested observer this time?

"They'll ask, as long as you have a good relationship with them and they trust you," he said. "For somebody like [Kolb], that's easy, you don't have to do a whole lot of selling with him. They have the film and then with Kevin, you guys deal with him, so you know, you tell Kevin something one time and he's got the whole picture."

Reid said the questions concern "how he learns, how he sees things," and his response is: "He's pretty good at all those, which is true. Very talented kid."

So, if that's really how Reid feels, what would he do if teams asked him about trading for Vick? After all, when the lockout ends, there is still the matter of whether to sign Vick to a longterm deal or defer that commitment and let him play under the franchise tender this season.

"That's not where people are at," Reid said. "The focus is really on Kevin. [Although] I keep my ears open on everything. Michael's our quarterback right now. We'll see how all that [long-term contract] goes. Michael's our quarterback right now, and that's how I expect it to be."

When reporters started asking followup questions about Reid's "open ears" policy regarding a Vick trade, Reid clarified.

"I'm not trading Michael . . . Michael's the quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles this year," he said.

Several questions to Reid involved what happens to a potential Kolb trade if the April 28-30 draft comes and goes without the lockout being lifted and player trades being allowed. The Eagles' stance has been that having to talk about trading for players and/or 2012 draft picks complicates the picture, for a team that is trying to win the Super Bowl now, and might find keeping Kolb attractive, given the possibility of injury to Vick.

Reid acknowledged being "torn" over whether he would be better off trading or keeping Kolb. But Reid softpeddled the idea of an extended lockout killing a possible Kolb trade. Clearly, he won't stop listening when the calendar turns to May.

"We're going to keep our ears open on everything. If [trades are allowed and] it's before, if it's after, who knows right now? I'm always going to make sure the Eagles are OK," Reid said. "I know Kevin is a quarterback who can win a championship. For me to let him go, it's got to be something special. We've got quite a few people very interested in him. It's got to be the right deal, in order to do something like that . . . You look at the option of what that [2012] pick is. The future, that part doesn't bother me. Depends on what the pick is. Maybe there has to be something else involved with it, you know? That's all right."

But wouldn't fans rebel if the Eagles - often criticized for thinking of the future at the expense of the present - didn't get something for Kolb that could help them right away?

"I'm used to that," Reid said.

A reporter who mainly remembered Kolb from the season-opening loss to the Packers - in which Kolb suffered a concussion that ultimately led to Vick becoming the starter - asked Reid how he saw Kolb progress from that point.

"Dom [Capers, the Green Bay defensive coordinator] put together a good blitz plan. I didn't think we did a good job up front against it, which didn't give Kevin a great opportunity to throw the football," Reid said. "By the time we made the adjustments, he was hurt. So that's one of those things. But what you saw later on in the year is what Kevin's all about - two-time NFC offensive player of the week, the 300-yard games he put together, the leadership. He gives you so much flexibility to do so many things offensively that he's kind of a treat to coach . . . Kevin Kolb is a sharp cookie."

A year ago at these meetings, Reid finally acknowledged he was open to trading Donovan McNabb. The Eagles ended up taking McNabb's preferences into account when they sent him to Washington, though McNabb's happiness there turned out to be short-lived. Is what Kolb wants a part of this year's equation, or are the stakes too high to allow that?

"Kevin's one of my favorite guys. You're always going to try to help the kid out," Reid said. "You've also got to help yourself out. With Donovan, I had to make sure I did that."

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